Evil teen killer made a chilling threat, but tragically his victim's mother 'didn’t know he meant it'

Obsessed teenager Logan MacPhail once told his 15-year-old ex girlfriend Holly Newton: "If I can't have you, nobody can."

Today Holly's heartbroken mum Micala Trussler said: “What we didn’t know is he meant it.”

In January 2023, days after his relationship with Holly ended, MacPhail, then 16, stalked her around Hexham, Northumberland, and knifed her to death in an alleyway. MacPhail, now 17, was detained for life, with a minimum term of 17 years , for Holly’s murder following a hearing at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday.

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Chillingly, MacPhail had visited Holly's family home in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, late in the evening before he killed her and tried to get into the house, but was refused access by one of her siblings.

Her mother Micala, in a pooled BBC interview filmed ahead of MacPhail’s sentencing, said: “I think if he somehow managed to get into the house, we could have been looking at more than one murder.”

MacPhail and Holly met at Army Cadets and their 18-month relationship developed over time, despite them living 40 miles apart. Holly, who was sporty, adventurous and loved dancing, seemed happy in the relationship, her mother said, and so she had no concerns about the pair to start with.

But the schoolgirl began to raise concerns with her mother about MacPhail’s behaviour, and they had previously split up, only to get back together again. Her mother said Holly felt sorry for MacPhail, who has autism, a serious speech impediment and learning difficulties, and did not know how to end the relationship.

Mrs Trussler said: “It got to a point where she really made her mind up, but still struggled to disconnect, mainly because he wouldn’t allow her to do that.”

She added: “He was obsessed with her for a long time. He didn’t like her to go out.

“He didn’t want her to go out with her friends. He needed to know where she was all the time, even if she was just at home.

“He wanted to know what she was doing. He changed her passwords on all of her social media, so she was quite upset about that, because she couldn’t get into any of it.

“There was just a lot of controlling behaviour going on.”

Mrs Trussler said because of her young age, the legal system did not consider that her daughter had been a victim of domestic abuse. But the family was sure that MacPhail, then aged 16, exercised coercive control over Holly, even though they did not live together.

And Mrs Trussler now wants to warn other families about the dangers of 'controlling behaviour'. Police also want to raise awareness among parents and teenagers about toxic relationships.

Detective Sergeant Darren Davies, who worked on the case, said: “It’s quite clear that as generations and technologies change, children are often far more involved in each other’s lives and their relationships are far more intense than they were when I was 14, 15 or 16. There needs to be parental, teacher and societal conversations around the intensity of teenage relationships to make sure that teenagers are aware of what’s healthy and what’s not, around contact, friends, passwords and access to each other’s social media and friend groups.

“Everyone is connected in some way these days. Parents need to be a lot more aware because these things can happen.”

He added: “There needs to be more done around healthy relationships with teenagers to make them aware of where boundaries are and where boundaries should be at such a young age.”